Japanese management techniques & American Firms

Can Japanese management techniques be successfully applied to American firms? What are the ramifications of trying to bring Japanese management to American factories? Japanese management techniques received a great deal of attention during the 1970s and 1980s, and a number of American companies, including HewlettPackard, sought to use these tactics with American workers. Heralded at first as an answer to failing American competitiveness, a longer range view of Japanese management with American workers has shown that there are unanticipated problems that can arise. Toyota and General Motors operate a plant in Fremont, California as a joint venture. The plant, called NUMMI, provides an excellent example of Japanese management techniques transplanted to an American work environment.

Japanese management techniques involve an organization-wide approach to the manufacturing process. All aspects of a factory, including human resources, technical resources, plant layout and relationships with vendors are affected by the management philosophy. There is a high level of commitment to quality throughout all aspects of the organization and this commitment to quality extends to vendors, as well (Rehder, p. 88).

The NUMMI plant, for example, uses Just-In-Time management techniques (JIT) that result in vendors delivering component parts at precisely the time the parts are needed for assembly. JIT strives to provide each step in the assembly process with exactly the number of input

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e amount of pressure on individual workers to ensure that their part of the task is completed on time. In order to complete the task in the shortest amount of time, some safety measures may be overlooked, resulting in higher numbers of work-related injuries. Stress can also take the form of increased illness as employees are unwilling to remain at home when they are unwell. This reluctance can result from a fear of losing a job or not being called back from a layoff if the attendance record is not outstanding. Working while ill, or working while under the influence of even overthecounter medications can increase the incidence of injury. Work stress can also be traced to the pressure of the work group to keep individuals performing in a manner consistent with the norms of the work group. In Japanese organizations, it is the duty of each individual of a workgroup to bring suggestions on ways to improve the workflow or quality of an operation to the team leader. If the suggestion is implemented, and savings are realized, the quota becomes easier to attain for the workgroup. Left alone, this would ease the stress on individual group members. However, it is up to the workgroup leader to adjust (increase) the quota in light o

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